More than six years ago, before she was elected to the Anna Maria City Commission in 2006, Jo Ann Mattick had a dream for the city pier.
She envisioned a boardwalk along the shore between parked cars and the water to allow people, including those with limited mobility, to traverse and sit comfortably while enjoying the sights of the city pier.
The dream would also allow pedestrians an unrestricted and safe 850-foot stroll from the humpback bridge to the south end of the parking lot.
Mattick saw the need for parking spaces to ensure pedestrian safety, and at the same time create a safe Island trolley stop at the pier entrance.
Last week, Mattick’s dream was realized last week as work crews from Woodruff & Sons Inc. opened about 400 feet of boardwalk on the north side of the pier from the North Bay Boulevard bridge to the pier entrance and opened the north parking lot for motorists and the trolley.
“The dream was for people in wheelchairs who couldn’t get out and onto the pier. They had to sit in a car and watch, and if a parking space facing the water was unavailable, that was too bad,” Mattick said.
The commissioner wanted wheelchair-bound visitors to be able access the waterfront and to have a rest area on the boardwalk that would not obstruct pedestrians, while allowing for an unrestricted view of the city pier, Tampa Bay, Perico Island and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.
In 2005, Mattick began a search for a grant that would fund the project.
She discovered a fedeeral transportation enhancement grant program that provided funds for new projects to beautify scenic areas. Mattick wrote the long and tedious grant application and was rewarded with a $359,000 grant to the city.
Originally believing that would be enough for the boardwalk, Mattick, by then a city commissioner, found out that, because the Florida Department of Transportation was overseeing the disbursement of funds and engineering the project, it meant construction had to be to federal standards, which proved to be more stringent and expensive than county or city requirements.
The $359,000 wasn’t enough to build an 850-foot-long boardwalk, benches and to provide turtle-friendly lighting on the boardwalk, two shelters at the pier entrance, a trolley stop, a new pier sign, and install native landscaping and rearrange the parking lot to provide dedicated spaces and additional parking slots.
The city was in a quandary over what to build with the funds, but Mannon Lavoie of the DOT’s community affairs department, began searching for more grant funds. After searching many months, Lavoie discovered an additional $500,000 that had not been taken and convinced federal officials to allocate the money for Anna Maria, bringing the total grant to $859,000.
That was enough to build everything in Mattick’s dream, but the credit goes to Lavoie, Mattick said.
“It was really thanks to her we were able to go through with this,” Mattick said. “Without her extra work, we would have ended up with maybe two new shelters and a new sign, and that’s about all.”
Construction on the north portion of the project began May 16 and the contractor estimates the entire project will be completed by mid-October, before the arrival of the winter tourist season.
“I think our visitors and residents will be very pleased with how the new addition really blends in with the pier. I think it appears very natural, and when the landscaping grows in, it will look great,” Mattick said.
The boardwalk is raised about eight inches above the ground and will have turtle-friendly lighting for evening visits. The north shelter will serve as the Island trolley’s pier stop, while the south shelter can be used for picnics or just relaxing. A new sign for the pier entrance will be installed once the south portion of the project is complete.
The project also calls for benches on the boardwalk, bike racks, concrete pads for news racks, picnic tables, irrigation and erosion control for the Bay Boulevard bridge.
Motorists can expect intermittent, temporary lane closures along South Bay Boulevard as construction and a flagging operation to allow motorists access will continue.